“Actually, I won him in a bachelor auction for charity,” she said. She felt James stiffen beside her as she fought to keep a straight face.
“Really?” The cousins all chuckled.
“Did he command a decent price?” one of the men in the group asked.
“Sadly, I was the lone bidder,” Carly said with a shake of her head. “I won him for the bargain basement amount of two dollars and seventy-three cents and a fuzzy Tic Tac, which was all I found in the bottom of my purse.”
“Carly.” James’s voice was a low growl that made her insides hum.
The group laughed and James turned to look at her with one eyebrow raised in question. Carly bit her lip to keep from laughing. She could tell by the twinkle in his gaze that he wasn’t mad.
“Two seventy-three? Has he been worth all that?” another man asked.
“And a fuzzy Tic Tac, don’t forget. I can’t say that he has,” Carly said. She leaned forward and whispered in a suspiciously loud voice, “It was a pity bid, really. Probably, I could have gotten him for just the Tic Tac.”
The man slapped James on the back and howled.
“Jamie, over here, we want to meet your date,” a voice called from another group on the patio.
“Excuse us,” James said and steered Carly away from the cousins. When they were a few steps away, he asked, “Having a good time?”
“Most excellent,” she said. She nudged him with her elbow and said, “Teasing you is fun.”
“Hmm,” he hummed but said no more.
They joined the next group and Carly was pleased to see that James’s parents were in the mix. They were holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes like they were sixteen instead of fifty-something. Adorable.
This time when the question of how Carly and James had met was posed, James spoke before she could and said, “Jail.”
“What?” Emily gasped.
She looked at her husband in horror. Jimmy frowned in concern. Carly whipped her head in James’s direction, giving him a wild-eyed look, but he paid no attention to her as he continued his story.
“Yep, I was going into the station to pay a parking ticket when this fine young lady was dragged past me in her orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, and I thought to myself, ‘She is it for me.’ I badgered the officers until they gave me her name and when she was released, I asked her out.”
An awkward beat of silence pulsed amongst the group until Jimmy snorted a laugh.
“You almost had me,” he said. He punched his son lightly on the shoulder. “Such a kidder.”
Emily looked as if she’d wilt in relief. “James Hardaway Sinclair, it is not nice to tease your parents.”
“Or your girlfriend,” Carly added. She knew she shouldn’t laugh at his malarkey, but the jail bit had been a good one and she couldn’t help it.
James whipped his head in her direction. It was the first time Carly had ever said the word girlfriend in the presence of others. She felt the intensity of his gaze upon her and when her eyes met his, her heart kicked up in her chest as if it were trying to take flight. What was even more alarming? She liked it.
“It’s nice hearing you say that,” he said.
It was a moment of pure honesty, and Carly wasn’t sure how to process the raw emotion coming off of him, so she stepped away and said, “Shoot, I have to go call my parole officer. Wouldn’t want to get hauled out of the party for failure to check in.”
“Oh, my goodness.” Emily laughed. She glanced between the two of them and said, “Jamie, dearest, I honestly think you’ve met your match.”
Breaking eye contact with James for fear that she might jump him at the most inappropriate moment (i.e., now) and have her way with him, Carly led the way to the next group.
Through unspoken agreement, when the time came to tell how they met, it was Carly’s turn to bust out a whopper. And she did. She claimed that she met James in a strip club, where he’d been stripping to raise money for some new physical therapy equipment.
Again, the story was met with big guffaws and slaps on the back. James laughed harder than anyone, especially when Carly acted out his awkward strip tease and proclaimed that she had stuffed his G-string because she felt sorry for him.
When he hugged her close to his side, Carly felt herself melt into him, and she noticed the family around them smiled and nodded in approval. They were happy for him. As Carly glanced at the group, she noted that one person was not laughing. In fact, she was staring at James as if she was appalled by his rowdiness. The woman looked pinched as if she had her jaw clamped shut to keep from scolding him.
Carly noted that she was tall and lithe and dressed completely in high-end fashion from her spindly-heeled shoes to her expertly tailored beige suit. She wore her straight, pale blonde hair in a severe bob that stopped at her jaw. She had a gorgeous face, with jutting cheekbones, full lips, and perfectly arched eyebrows over enormous dark blue eyes. She could easily have been a supermodel. Thankfully, when she opened her mouth, Carly saw she had overly large teeth, which gave her a bit of a horsey look.
Still, she had that indefinable air of belonging wherever she chose to be. It was the sort of self-assurance that comes from being beautiful, coupled with a life of privilege spent in big houses, expensive schools, trips abroad, and never knowing what it is to want for anything.
The woman must have sensed Carly watching her, because she stopped staring at James and shifted her gaze to Carly. Her thin nose wrinkled just the littlest bit and her upper lip curled as if she smelled something unpleasant.
Carly felt a moment of self-doubt but then shook it off. Not knowing what to expect tonight, she had chosen a navy blue chemise and matching pumps, paired with a delicate pewter cashmere wrap. It was very Audrey Hepburn with a fit-and-flare style that made it both demure and sexy. Carly had learned early on that when in a fashion dilemma, a girl could never go wrong if she asked herself WWAW: What Would Audrey Wear?
Having reassured herself, Carly tipped her chin up. She had nothing to lose here; if this cow wanted to bring it then so be it.
“James, how amusing you and your . . . friend are,” the woman said. “Don’t tease us, tell us how you really met. Was she your waitress at a diner or your checkout girl at the market?”
James glanced at the woman, and Carly felt his shoulders tighten just the littlest bit as he registered the woman’s joke? Carly didn’t think she was imagining it when the others in the group swiveled their heads between James and the woman as if watching two fighters square off in a cage match. Okay, now it was all coming into focus; this was an ex-girlfriend. Carly was sure of it.
“Heather,” he said. “Nice to see you again.”
He couldn’t maintain eye contact when he said it, and Carly noted for future reference that he was a terrible liar.
Heather, aka the skinny equine, just stared at him as if trying to bend him to her will. Someone else in the group, a younger cousin in their twenties, jostled James’s arm and said, “Come on, tell us the real story.”
James glanced away from Heather and back to Carly, who was still tucked under his arm. As he considered her, his gaze went from hard slate gray to a pretty shade of blue, and Carly was quite sure she could spend all day watching the colors shift and swirl in his irises.
“The very first time I saw Carly she was walking across a crowded room in a flirty red dress and matching heels and the sight of her literally made my heart stop.”
Carly felt her face get hot. James smiled at her and pressed a kiss against her hair as if to reassure her that he wouldn’t embarrass her.
“And I wasn’t the only one. Every man in the room watched her, but, as always, she was completely oblivious of how beautiful she was. I remember her hair was in long loose waves and her eyes sparkled with mischief, but it was her smile, which was wide and warm and welcoming, that sucker p
unched me right in the chest. It was love at first sight.”
James turned so he was facing her and Carly swallowed, wondering if it was audible or if she was the only one who heard the lump in her throat going down her esophagus with the force of a plunger. When James lifted his hand to trace the curve of her lips with his fingertip, she stopped breathing and feared she might pass out.
“When I saw Carly smile, when I heard her laugh that beautiful musical sound for the first time, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
He paused, forcing Carly to ask, “What?”
James leaned down so his face was just a breath away from hers. “Make you smile and laugh every day just like you did that day.”
“Oh.” The word was softly spoken on the last bit of breath Carly had in her lungs. The group around them was filled with soft murmurings of appreciation, but Carly couldn’t really hear them as she was completely enthralled by the way James was looking at her.
“Well,” Heather scoffed, “I think I preferred the story where you were a stripper, Jamie, much more amusing.”
She shoved out of the group, pushing through James and Carly, forcing them to step back. Carly felt the loss of James’s warmth immediately. She knew he had made the story up, but the way he looked at her. It was like it had actually happened, as if he had really felt all of those things the first time he saw her. Wow.
As the group resumed conversing, James’s gaze stayed on Carly. She found herself stepping back into his side, letting him wrap his arm around her. She told herself it was for appearances and warmth, but she knew it was a lie. His words had woven a spell around her and she found she just wanted to be near him for a little while.
As one of the cousins went on to tell how he met his wife in the Peace Corps, Carly stood up on her tiptoes to whisper in James’s ear.
“Good story,” she said.
She waited to see if he would say more. She wished she remembered meeting him eleven years ago, but she didn’t. She had no way of knowing if what he had just said was true. Still, she had to know.
“Was that really what happened the first time we met?”
At that, James moved his hands to her hips and turned her so that they were facing each other. He cupped her chin in his hands and looked at her, really looked at her, then he lowered his head. He moved super slow as if giving her the opportunity to push him away if she chose. She didn’t, and after an eternity measured out in seconds, he kissed her.
It wasn’t much more than the pressing of his mouth against hers. Lips didn’t part and there was no tongue involved and yet, somehow, Carly felt as if it was the most intimate kiss of her life because when he kissed her, James did it with such complete focus, making her feel as if there were no one else on the veranda but the two of them.
He sank his teeth gently into her lower lip in just the smallest nip and Carly felt as if a flare had been lit in her girl parts. Memories of their night together and what he could do with that mouth of his sent her reeling.
When he leaned back, he caressed the line of her jaw with his thumbs. He studied her face and said, “Yes.”
With that, he tucked Carly back under his arm and resumed stroking her side. How could such an innocuous touch make her feel so much, as if his fingers were leaving a trail of sparks along her skin through the fabric of her dress? She shivered and he pulled her even closer. She didn’t tell him it wasn’t the cold making her tremble. It was him, all him.
Chapter 25
Dinner was catered buffet style, casual with a decided barbeque flair, as the tables were done in red and white gingham with big bowls of peanuts on every table and bales of hay with scarecrows and pumpkins placed just so all over the courtyard as decorations.
James and Carly loaded their plates before finding a spot at one of the more secluded tables set up on the perimeter of the veranda under a heater. Carly wasn’t sure but after their run-in with Heather, she got the feeling James was trying to keep her all to himself.
Given how awful the woman had been, she was profoundly grateful.
“I hope you like barbeque,” he said. He put their plates down on the table and pulled Carly’s chair out for her.
“Are you kidding? They had me at cornbread,” she said.
James glanced at the plate he had carried for her, where there were three pieces of cornbread stacked up beside a pile of brisket and green beans. He grinned.
“Now I know one of your weaknesses.”
Carly smiled. “Are you planning to use it against me?”
“I might,” he said. “You never know what a woman who is desperate for cornbread might pony up in exchange.”
Carly grinned at his teasing tone.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” she said. “I may love a good piece of cornbread but I am not exchanging any sexual favors for it.”
“Oh, my god, was I supposed to knock before I joined you two?” Lola asked with a quirk of her diamond-studded eyebrow. She took the seat on the other side of Carly and said, “Just so you know, big brother, that sounded decidedly pervy even for you.”
James looked at his sister in chagrin and then threw a green bean at her. It bonked her on the nose and she shouted “Hey!” making both James and Carly laugh.
The table filled in around them with cousins and aunts and uncles that Carly hadn’t met yet. She shook hands and tried to catch names, but she figured she’d just have to stick close to James so he could slip her their names on an as-needed basis. She tried not to dwell on the fact that the enforced proximity to James did not feel like a hardship, not at all.
When one more cousin popped up at the table that was already full, James offered the person his seat. Carly glanced up at him in surprise as he stood.
“That’s so nice of you,” she said.
“Not really.”
Without giving her a clue as to his intent, he scooped her up out of her chair and then sat back down, holding her on his lap.
“I . . . uh . . . you . . .”
“Thanks so much, James.” The cousin, a darkly handsome man in his late twenties, said as he took his seat and beamed at them. “Clearly, this is the fun table and I would have hated to miss out.”
Carly couldn’t speak, couldn’t chew, couldn’t swallow, couldn’t move. It was as if every single part of her anatomy was suddenly achingly aware of the man beneath her. She reached for her beer and took a healthy chug. Then she pushed it away, suspecting it might only add fuel to the fire.
“Well, don’t you two look cozy,” Lola said. She leaned closer to Carly and whispered, “Be careful. Over at two o’clock, you have a mean girl looking like she wants to cut you.”
“What?” Carly asked.
She shifted but then was acutely aware of the part of James’s anatomy that was intimately pressed up against her backside. She felt a wave of heat scorch her from the inside out and she had to close her eyes for a bit to get her bearings.
“You all right, Carly?” James leaned forward, pressing his front against her back. “You’re not eating.”
“I’m fine,” she said. Then she turned her head so that she could whisper in his ear. “You, however, are in deep, deep trouble, buster.”
His arms tightened around her and he pulled her in even closer as he whispered in return, “Hmm, I’m not sure whether I should be excited by this news or dreading it. Give me a hint, what’s my punishment going to be?”
Carly pulled back to look at his face. Big mistake. He was grinning and his mouth was just an inch from hers. All she had to do was lean in just a breath—
“See? Look!” Lola jostled Carly to get her attention and Carly glanced back at Lola, trying to remember what they had been talking about. “Two o’clock!”
Carly picked up her beer and pretended to take a sip while glancing over the rim slightly to her right. It was Heather. She was
sitting two tables away, facing them while holding her fork in one hand and her knife in the other with her gaze trained on Carly as if she was picturing how to carve her up like a juicy spare rib.
“Yikes!” Carly hissed at Lola. “Is it just me or is it me?”
“Oh, it’s you all right,” Lola began. “She’s married to our cousin. Remember, the one I told you about—the A Factor—and they are a match made in heav— Scratch that, they’re a match made in hell.”
“Oh, really?” Carly lifted her eyebrows in surprise. So, Preston was married to Heather. Weird. What was weirder was she could have sworn she had gotten ex-girlfriend vibe off Heather in regard to James.
“It’s a very sordid story, but Heather married him after—” Lola began but James interrupted.
“What are you two whispering about?”
Lola gave her brother a wide-eyed glance. “Nothing. Not a thing. Not one little pesky nonsensical thing.”
Carly glanced between them. Had Lola been about to confirm her suspicion? Had James and Heather been a couple? That would certainly explain Heather’s earlier frostiness. Since subtlety was not really Carly’s thing, she went there.
“Did you date Heather?” she asked James.
He turned to look at Lola, who was suddenly fascinated by the corncob on her plate as if it were her job to count every kernel. Carly glanced over her shoulder and noticed that most of their table had gone still, blatantly listening to hear how James handled this.
“Yes, we were a couple, but it was a long time ago,” he said. “And I’ve been over it and her for years.”
His gaze met hers. It was steady and honest, which was one of the things Carly truly liked about James Sinclair. She realized she trusted him, which was a very new feeling for her in regard to men other than her small circle of friends and her dad.
“Okay,” she said.
“That’s it?” he asked. “No questions, no opinions, no curiosity? Just okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. Then she smiled at him because it was nice to trust someone like she trusted him, really nice.
Barking Up the Wrong Tree Page 23
